Stalin Ignored Invasion Warnings, Pravda Says

Dictator Josef Stalin had detailed information about Nazi Germany’s plans to invade the Soviet Union in 1941 but ignored the warnings and failed to prepare for war, Pravda told its readers Monday.

The full-page article in the Communist Party newspaper, the most detailed look yet at what Soviet spies knew about Adolf Hitler’s plans, came on the eve of a national observance of the 44th anniversary of victory in World War II.

The article marked a sharp break from the Soviet press tradition of publishing uncritical, patriotic reminiscences of Soviet heroism.

Western historians have written extensively about how Stalin ignored intelligence reports about Hitler’s plans. However, little has been published in the Soviet Union, where Stalin traditionally had been portrayed as a brilliant wartime leader.

But under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, or openness, many Soviet writers and historians have recently condemned Stalin’s political repression of millions of people and re-examined his wartime role.

Pravda said the article’s author, history professor A. Baidakov, gleaned the accounts from classified state security archives.

He said the state security agencies managed to infiltrate Hitler’s Gestapo secret police, Germany’s Aviation Ministry and its coding service.

According to Baidakov, security officials promptly forwarded information to Soviet political leaders about Hitler’s invasion plans as early as November, 1940. German forces invaded June 22, 1941.

But, the historian said:

“The leadership of the U.S.S.R. people’s commissariats (ministries) of state security and defense did not, in my view, do everything to convince Stalin and the country’s other leaders of the inevitability of an imminent confrontation with the Germans.”

He added that the main blame for lack of preparedness “lies with the U.S.S.R. political leadership.”

Baidakov revealed a series of intelligence reports forwarded to Stalin and Foreign Minister Vyacheslav M. Molotov. In April, 1941, for example, the two were told that Hitler had revealed to a Yugoslav prince that an invasion of the Soviet Union was planned for June.

On June 16, this urgent message was delivered to Stalin and Molotov: “All military operations of Germany on preparation of a military aggression against the U.S.S.R. have been completely stopped, and a blow can be expected at any time.”

The next day, Baidakov wrote, Stalin asked intelligence officials whether the message was reliable. Before the information could be rechecked, the Germans invaded.